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Maryland adopts new science education standards

Curriculum to involve hands-on learning

Maryland has adopted a new set of standards to give science education a major overhaul starting in kindergarten.

Maryland adopts new science education standards

Curriculum to involve hands-on learning

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Updated: 5:58 PM EDT Jun 25, 2013

BALTIMORE —

Maryland has adopted a new set of standards to give science education a major overhaul starting in kindergarten.

Maryland is one of five states on board with this new set of international science standards called Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a new set of voluntary, but rigorous benchmarks for science education.

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It's all part of a larger push for more science, technology, engineering and math education.

The Maryland State Board of Education approved the science changes during its monthly meeting, paving the way for Maryland schools to give students a foundation based on scientific principles.

"It's what we want them to know and be able to do in the science piece -- gathering evidence, making arguments from the evidence, proving what they think they've found," said Mary Thurlow, coordinator for the science curriculum at the Maryland State Department of Education.

That's what the board's student member, Ebehireme Inegbenebor, said has been lacking for too long.

"I remember in high school, you don't look forward to it because you know you'll be just memorizing facts, teachers are going to be talking, but now you can actually become involved and engaged," Inegbenebor said.

The new science standards have been in the works for the past few years but will not officially go online until 2017.

"The expectation is that students will be up and moving and exploring and doing problem-based, inquiry-based learning that is just a part of the standard," state schools Superintendent Lillian Lowery said.

It's a science standard that will take into account technology, engineering and math.

"We are trying to reconstruct education so that Americans can have access to American dream because the jobs that we see in the future look like they are going to be the kinds that the skills that you get in STEM training," said S. James Gates, member of the Maryland Board of Education.

A handful of Maryland school districts are already giving these standards a test run. The state hopes the training will help lay the groundwork for college and the real world.